Last week, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly made a surprise visit to Beijing – the first face-to-face talks in China’s capital involving a Canadian foreign minister in seven years. Joly’s office described the visit as a chance to “exchange views on concrete ways to enhance the already deep ties between the people of Canada and China.”
These “deep ties” are not based on a similarity of values. The track record of the People’s Republic includes the forced collectivization of farms and the extermination of songbirds during the Great Leap Forward, the destruction of ancient culture during the Cultural Revolution, the annexation of the peaceful Buddhist state of Tibet, and the massacre of dissidents in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Perhaps this difference in values could be overlooked if our relationship with China was in Canada’s national interest, but this is not remotely the case. China’s chief diplomat told Minister Joly that China wants to “inject momentum into the restoration of normal relations”. Let us recap a few reasons why relations are not “normal”. It would be impossible to list all of them within my word limit!
In 2018, the RCMP arrested Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on behalf of an American court that wanted her extradited. In retaliation, China arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor – they spent 1,000 days in prison, many in solitary confinement.
In 2019, scientists Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng were escorted out of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, after it was discovered that they were secretly collaborating with China.
Reporting from Global News and the Globe And Mail has exposed brazen Chinese interference in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, through undisclosed cash donations, disinformation campaigns, and covert operations directing international students to support pro-China candidates. In 2023, it was revealed that China had been operating overseas police stations on Canadian soil.
China does not lift a finger to stop the flow into Canada of fake honey cut with corn syrup and fraught with health risks, endangering Canadian consumers and undercutting our beekeepers. Even more seriously, China refuses to crack down on the flood of lethal fentanyl from its shores to ours, which is claiming the lives of thousands of Canadians.
My esteemed critics will perhaps concede that the People’s Republic might be a soulless and brutal regime, and that it may well be a terrible partner that treats Canada like a vassal state – but it does help our economy….right?
In reality, Canada has a trade deficit of $58.7 billion with China, which is only our third largest trade partner (below the U.S. and the E.U.). Besides fentanyl and fake honey, we import huge amounts of cheap junk which undercuts Canadian manufacturers, and is frequently of such low quality that consumers have to buy the items repeatedly.
Far from sending our ministers to kowtow to China, Canada should be minimizing our relations with them and forging ties with civilized countries that respect us.
Editor’s note: My Counter Current column is published once every two weeks in the Islands Marketplace paper on Salt Spring Island. This piece was published on July 26th, 2024.
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